“Then, in the next place, if they are ceaselessly
borne about, and always coming, and being added to things whose measure
is already complete, how can the universe stand, when new weights are
always being heaped upon so vast weights? And this also I
ask: If this expanse of heaven which we see was constructed by
the gradual concurrence of atoms, how did it not collapse while it was
in construction, if indeed the yawning top of the structure was not
propped and bound by any stays? For as those who build circular
domes, unless they bind the fastening of the central top, the whole
falls at once; so also the circle of the world, which we see to be
brought together in so graceful a form, if it was not made at once, and
under the influence of a single forth-putting of divine energy by the
power of a Creator, but by atoms gradually concurring and constructing
it, not as reason demanded, but as a fortuitous issue befell, how did
it not fall down and crumble to pieces before it could be brought
together and fastened? And further, I ask this: What is the
pavement on which the foundations of such an immense mass are
laid? And again, what you call the pavement, on what does it
rest? And again that other, what supports it? And so I go
on asking, until the answer comes to nothing and vacuity!